Svetlana Zhurova, the speedskater who won gold in the 500-meter competition in Turin Olympics, stands in front of Lexus outside Russia's Olympic Committee in Moscow on Friday, April 21, 2006. On March 6 Russian President Putin praised the country''s Olympic gold medalists, telling them they each get a new car. The men would get a Toyota Land Cruiser, while women would receive a Lexus.
Photo: AP
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
President's Gift Stolen from Olympian
The Lexus RX-350 sports utility vehicle belonging to one-time Olympic speedskater and current member of the Leningrad Region legislative assembly Svetlana Zhurova on Tuesday. The car had been given to her by Russian President Vladimir Putin last year. He gave all the members of Russian team expensive automobiles to mark Russia's successes at the Winter Olympics in Turin.
Zhurova parked her car on Tulskaya St. near Bolsheokhotinsky Bridge in St. Petersburg. “My husband and I went into a shoe store and spent no more than 20 minutes there,” Zhurova told Kommersant. She added that she was “stunned by the nerve of the crime – committed in broad daylight right under a Sberbank surveillance camera.”
Zhurova said that the car had Moscow license plates. Spokesmen for the road police suggested that the thieves thought that no one would bother about a Moscow car in St. Petersburg. Zhurova informed the road police and president of the Russian Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev of the theft. “When they find out what kind of car they took,” she said, “they will probably take it apart for the spare parts. Why should they try to resell a car that all the police in Russia are looking for?”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 29, 2007
|
|
|
